I had the opportunity to be part of a grant that was funded in part by NASA. It's goal is to bring more math, science, and technology to the classroom. The hope was and still is that more students become interested in math and science in order to replace all those NASA employees who are ready for retirement. I am currently in the 2nd year of the grant and so far I have visited Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland twice, earned 12 graduate credits, 40 hours of science instruction, and during the first year all the participants received iPads (the newest thing at the time). In addition to those wonderful things, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Lake Placid, NY last February. The History of Winter (HOW) Program has been taking place each year since 2000. A short video about this program can be viewed here. We stayed at Northwood School a boarding school who's students were on vacation. While there we studied snow and ice density by collecting samples. We worked in groups made up of elementary, middle, and high school math and science teachers and professors from various universities. NASA scientists were also on hand. It was a great experience and we were able to do some other fun activities such as ice climbing and snowshoeing.
I slept in a snow quinzee
Filling the canisters to determine density.
A snow flake under a digi-scope.
Ice samples - Cascade Lake, Lake Placid, & Saranac Lake.
Snowshoes!
Ice Climbing - much harder than it looked.
Yes - It was cold!